Spiritual Side
by Seena58
Summary: AU. In this world infested with demons, you either have to fight to live or die trying. You can't fight fate. [DarkRiku. DaiSato. More pairings later]
1. Fortitude One

Disclaimers: Author does not on anything, so leave me alone.

A/N: Something about gore-fest, blood and guts and fighting. I must be running around in the deeper end at the moment. Will only be a one shot for now, AU, rather pointless read, but there may be more… one day. Once I get my head over something (needs to finish stories). Something about demons and demon-hunters (in case you get confused). Now, isn't _that_ an original idea (yes, that is sarcasm). Enjoy.

Okay, people seemed to be complaining about the… uhm… lack of pairings. Of course, the forewarning was that it was nearly impossible to see it as a one-shot, so… there's more. Yeah… I know… fear me.

**Status:** Multi-chapter fic. Incomplete.

**Pairings: **DarkRiku, others to be mentioned later.

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**Spiritual Side**

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Fortitude One

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Wiping a hand across her face, Riku spat out some blood and heaved herself up again. Her muscles strained pitifully, begging for rest, but she knew that it was practically impossible; unless she wanted to die. And she wasn't ready for that yet anyway. Her dark eyes darted across the small room, ignoring the devastation around her as she held up her long-sword into a proper fighting stance.

Blood dripping silently off the cold steel, and the sensation of blood pouring out of her leg wound would have – at one point – made her wince, but her attention was focused on more desperate things. Things that would either account to her own death, or the others'.

The corpses that littered the floor around her were already beginning to decay, she noticed bitterly; had she been fighting against this thing for that long already? It seemed almost impossible and she didn't like it. She was used to it, but she didn't like it one bit, and knew that she never would.

Risa was going to have a fit when she found out what had happened, the short haired brunette winced mentally at the thought of her younger twin, but then again, if she did die, it wouldn't matter, would it? At least the others had managed to get away from this place before something more disastrous happened. And they could warn the others.

Dammit, it was Saehara's fault in the first place. If the damn reporter hadn't decided that he wanted to make some stupid report about this stupid mansion that she was now in, then it wouldn't have placed him in this danger; in which both she and Mio had been forced to get him out of it. The short-haired blonde had then been sent off with him to get him to a hospital and to send for reinforcements, leaving Riku to deal with the mess as best as possible.

Where the hell were those reinforcements?

The sound of something wooden cracking brought her back to her senses and she smirked grimly at what was before her.

It was a demon of some sort, that was for sure, but definitely harder to decapitate and destroy. Why and how it had come into existence was a mystery to her and had been forcefully filed away to ask questions later. Its' minions, however, were the typical d-rank demons they always were and had spurted more blood than what one could have expected of the vile things. The floorboards she was standing upon was slippery with their blood, and the fact that they were rotting this quickly could only raise one suspicion.

Had this… _thing _she was facing somehow managed to absorb their souls? She had once talked about this to Daisuke, who had admitted that bodies only begin to decay once their souls are free from it, and judging the speed of that horrible dead smell that was beginning to fill the room…

She wrinkled her nose in disgust as the demon charged her. She parried, wondering how it had managed to acquire any sort of weapon at all, and countered; knocking it back just slightly. But while she was panting and hoping that back-up was coming, the creature didn't seem to be hindered at all by fatigue.

Riku cursed under her breath, her breathing coming in sharp, painful gasps. It was too much for her to handle in one day, especially on her own, but she couldn't just back out and run now. Hell, even if she wanted to do, just running around and taking a step would lead to her collapse.

God, she hated all this. The blood on her leg wound was slowly trickling in a thin pathway, her sword shaking just slightly in her hand as she tried to readjust. If only she had listened to her sister and had taken those extra medical items when Risa had insisted it so. Or at least drag Daisuke with her; he could probably deal with all this without any problem now.

But now, she was the only one here; with the demon that could not even be identified and she was probably going to die. Well, that was nice, thinking all that before her actual death, but it wasn't going to be pretty. If demons were as sadistic as she thought them to be, then it was going to be pure torture for her for a _long_ time…

"Dammit, can't think about that…" she hissed to herself, the pain nearly wrenching her apart mentally as she used all her willpower on staying up and ready for the next attack. But it didn't help.

A sharp gasp escaped her in pain as something sharp and lethally cold pierced her right shoulder, practically reaching the bone. She pulled back in the same direction, countering with an upwards slash which missed. One hand holding her sword, the other clasped tightly over the wound, her eyes narrowing at her enemy. There was no glory, no triumph or mocking in the demon's face; it was like it was too stupid to even be able to think that at all. No, it was probably just sent here to kill, and kill it was about to do.

Her senses were beginning to fog up and she struggled with it, only partly aware that her knees had hit the floorboards and blood was soaking her tunic. The clarity of her death and the fact that it would probably kill her twin at the thought was almost too painful to even think about it, but the thought would not leave her.

Damn all of them, damn the stupid upper-being that had created demons in the first place and damn Saehara for his eagerness to run into things despite the danger of it all. Damn them all now…

As a grateful darkness swept over her – well, even if she did die, it would hopefully be now when she was unconscious and unable to work out anything theoretically – some sixth sense somewhere indicated that, aside from the demon approaching her form, someone else was coming.

Well screw it all, she was already dead.


	2. Fortitude Two

Disclaimers: Author does not on anything, so leave me alone.

A/N: Yes, I decided to continue it. If only because people have been asking about where the DarkRiku pairing comes in. Well, I suppose I should have never mentioned it until later… but… whatever. (shrugs)

**Status:** Multi-chapter fic. Incomplete.

**Pairings: **DarkxRiku, DaisukexSatoshi, others to be mentioned.

And please don't complain about my choice of other pairings; in the end, it's entirely focused on Dark and Riku, so yeah. Don't argue, just read, it's all very vague because I don't write romance anyway.

Oh yes, and thank you for reviews (I'd reply to them, but my brain's scrambled from doing that too much, so yeah) it's very much appreciated!

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**Spiritual Side**

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Fortitude Two

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"So you're positively sure that she isn't going to die now?"

"Yeah. Come on, I know what I'm doing. And you're pacing around is beginning to get on my nerves so quit it!"

"Not my fault. If you were a better healer…"

"Shut up already. Daisuke's powers, like any other healer's, can only go so far in helping people. And she was nearly dead when you brought her back."

"Shut up yourself, Satoshi!"

"Hey, hey… calm down you two."

Riku groaned. Damn annoyingly loud voices were stopping her from getting back into the nice little nothingness that had embraced her so welcomingly. The fact now that she felt sore all over was the only thing indicating that she wasn't dead. Great, now she had to lie wherever she was until either she died, fell asleep, or woke up.

"No! Damn! I'm going to kill Saehara when I get my hands on him! He knows this is dangerous work and there he goes, throwing himself into danger because he's a complete idiot!"

"That I'll have to agree on. He should have told us."

"It's in the past. Please, if you have to hurt him so badly, do it away from the homes and stuff… those children could be scarred for life."

The talking continued, continuing to jab her in the face and not giving her any peace. Finally, she just gave up and forced her eyes to open. Three, indistinct shapes came into view.

"Do you three have to be so damn loud?" she croaked, trying to glare at them and failing miserably, "I can't sleep."

"Hey! You're alive!" the tallest of the three figures suddenly approached her and she instantly drew back as her vision cleared.

"Not you again," she muttered, getting a hurt look from the violet-haired teen. "Go away."

Dark pouted at this, "How can you be so cold to the person who saved you? Huh? You know you're sister was close to choking me when she saw the state you were in."

Flopping back onto her bed, Riku stared at the ceiling, "I expected that much from Risa… wait," the brunette bolted up at this, looking amused, surprised, and disgusted all at the same time, "You're the one who saved me?.!"

"Oi… don't give me that look!"

The redhead behind him pushed him out of the way, "Dark, seeing as she's okay now, why don't you get some rest?"

"But--"

He was joined by Satoshi, who forcefully pushed him out of the room, "Get going or I'll send Mio to pick you up."

"You wouldn't dare!"

"I've done it before."

Noting that their argument wasn't about to end soon, the blunette rolled his eyes before pushing Dark out and following him and closed the door behind them, muffling their voices from the occupants within.

Daisuke passed Riku a glass of water before taking a seat, "You're been out for a week already," he explained lightly, "I mean… the state you were in when Dark came back… we were all worried that you'd already…" trailing off, the redhead sighed.

Inclining her head at this, the brunette patted him lightly on the arm, "Well, I'm here now, aren't I? But… Dark!" she frowned, "Him of all people… I wish I was dead…"

"You do know that he does care a lot about you," Daisuke frowned slightly at her reaction with the situation, "or… wait… is this because he had to save you? Or that you just don't like the thought of being dependent on other people?"

Riku raised an eyebrow at him, "What the hell are you talking about, Niwa Daisuke-kun? Hm?" The challenge in her eyes was enough to warn him to draw back while he was ahead.

The healer smiled, waving a hand vaguely around, as if it proved his point, "Well, I suppose it doesn't matter, as long as you're okay now. My mother would have taken care of your herself, but Saehara's injuries were quite severe…"

"You mean mine weren't?"

"No! It just means that he has very low pain tolerance."

"Oh, right," that actually made a lot of sense, knowing Takeshi as they did. "It was his fault, though. Running in like that… he didn't even ask for an all-clear to warn the rest of us."

"I know," Daisuke swung his legs around, staring at the ceiling, "But you should've seen Dark when he heard the news from Mio-san. He completely flipped out and wouldn't even wait for Krad to back him up."

"Funny that," Riku sat up at this and crossed her arms as she thought about it, "those two have been close friends since birth, haven't they? They trust each other and all that usual stuff… and he wouldn't even wait? I've never seen Krad as one who would take forever to prepare."

The redhead stood up and began to pace the room, "Well, that's the thing. Dark didn't really go with all his equipment."

"Say what?.! He's… he's a complete idiot!"

"Yeah, that's what we were all thinking when we found out." Laughing nervously, he scratched the back of his head before walking over and pushing her back into a lying position, "But anyway, you need to get some more rest. I already put herbs in the drink you had, so it should be okay."

Riku yawned at this, "Right. Whatever. Risa isn't going to kill me, is she?"

"Uh… let's hope not. Although she'll have to get through Dark first," Daisuke smiled as he opened the door; Dark and Satoshi were still arguing loudly outside. "Just don't think about it."

"Uh-huh…" she heard the door click shut and the blanket of welcoming sleep swept over her. At this point, she also came to a simple conclusion.

When she recovered, kill Dark.

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"I can't believe an asshole like you'd be able to--"

"--and you're just a damn--"

"Guys!" Daisuke waved both arms wildly as he stepped in between the two, who shut up as soon as he intervened. Not that it stopped them from glaring at the other; ah yes, if looks could kill. "Riku needs rest and you're probably disturbing everyone else in here."

Dark pouted at this, leaning back against the wall, "Well, if Satoshi over here would just stop questioning my intellect for once…"

"You have none," snapped Satoshi, making a half-attempt to get past Daisuke, but then decided against it, "And what was that about going over to the mansion with only a long sword?"

"She was in danger! You saw how bad in a condition she was in!"

"Yeah! And you could've died as well if it hadn't been for Krad's timely arrival!"

"…"

"See? This is why we should never recruit the insanely rash people!" the blunette shook his head, pushing his glasses up, where they had slipped. "If he wasn't such an important member, I would have asked for his disposal already."

"Satoshi-kun…" Daisuke turned his head and raised an eyebrow. "You know you don't really mean that."

"Maybe not… but it doesn't stop him from being a bastard."

Fuming at this, the purple-haired teen retorted, "Stop insulting me! I'm three years your senior--"

"Not that you act like it."

"—and don't deny the fact that if Daisuke had been caught in that position, you would just sit there and wait for reinforcements!" he pointed a finger at the boy who was glaring at him behind his glasses and the redhead between them sighed.

Running a hand through his hair, Daisuke looked back and forth at the two with maddening patience, "Okay, we all know that Dark has emotional issues and Satoshi-kun tends to crack under pressure," he raised both hands as they opened their mouths to protest, "but that isn't the point here. Riku-san's going to be fine now, and if you two keep this up, she's going to wake up and kill all of us. Her sword's by the bed, remember."

"You can be so cruel, Daisuke," muttered Dark, scratching the back of his head, "but I suppose you have a point. Well, I'm off then."

He began to walk down the corridor, ignoring some of the complaints they could all hear within different rooms. "Oh, and Satoshi…" he turned, as if remembering something, "I'm seriously beginning to think you need a psychiatrist. You're really beginning to unbalance there, boy."

"Why you--" Satoshi tried to go after the teen, but was held back by Daisuke, "Daisuke, I'm going to have to kill him one day."

He crossed his arms and scowled at his boyfriend. "You know you can't or you'd be charged for manslaughter. Besides, Dark has a point."

"About what?" they both began to follow in the same direction that Dark took, through winding corridors. The lights were dimmed and the sky outside was nothing more than an inky darkness and, now that the shouting had stopped, silence was settling back in again.

"Sometimes when the person you love is in danger, you do irrational things."

"But Dark was just being the same idiot he always is. Not to mention everyone knows how much Riku hates him, himself included. What I don't get is why he keeps trying."

"How about me then?" Daisuke stopped by a window an opened it, allowing a cool breeze to filter in. "Even after I rejected you for three years you never gave up, did you?"

"…"

"Well, never mind," the redhead closed the window, "that's in the past, Riku-san will be alright in a couple of days, and then we're back to the daily tasks of our boring lives."

At this, Satoshi couldn't resist an amused smirk, "I suppose you're right about that. Fighting and risking our lives against demons can be a pretty tedious task."


End file.
